Microstructural stability of nanostructured Cu alloys during high-temperature irradiation
Received 4 May 2010; received in revised form 2 July 2010; accepted 4 July 2010. published online 12 July 2010.
The stability of model nanostructured Cu90Mo10 and Cu90W10 alloys during irradiation with 1.8MeV Kr+ at very high temperatures was investigated. Significant coarsening occurs only above ∼0.6Tm in Cu90Mo10 and ∼0.8Tm in Cu90W10 (Tm is the melting point of Cu). Below these temperatures, nanoprecipitates nucleate and grow to a saturation diameter of ∼4nm. These very small nanoprecipitates confer remarkable microstructural stability, with the Cu grain size remaining below 40nm. Computer simulations help to explain why these nanostructures are so stable.
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